Elive

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Elive

Screenshot of an Elive Gem 1.0 customized
Website http://www.elivecd.org/
Company/
developer		 Elive
OS family Debian GNU/Linux
Source model Shared source
Latest stable release 1.0 (Gem) / 5 July 2007
Supported platforms i386
Kernel type Monolithic kernel
Default user interface Enlightenment
License Various
Working state Current

Elive is a Linux distribution based on Debian for legacy and commodity hardware. Elive uses the Enlightenment X window manager instead of GNOME or KDE. Elive is a fully functional distribution with a Live CD counterpart that allows the user to sample the distribution before installing it on the system.

Elive can be used like any Live CD or installed to the hard drive to have access its fullfeatures. Elive utilizes UnionFS, which allows users to install software packages using Synaptic and/or APT, while the user's computer is running from the Live CD.

Contents

[edit] Features

Administration of Elive is centralized by its flagship application Elpanel, which was developed explicitly for Elive. Elpanel is an animated Administration applet that is written in Edje.

Elpanel is a virtual launchpad to various other administration tools which are nested within Elpanel via labelled custom icons.

Animation of the Elpanel interface
Animation of the Elpanel interface

Elive utilizes the Iceweasel browser and the Icedove mail client with pre-configured GnuPG extensions to encrypt and digitally sign emails. These tools allow the user to effortlessly digitally sign, encrypt and decrypt correspondence with minimal effort.

Elive has support for multimedia codecs of various audio and video formats. The following formats are supported by Elive:

WMA, Real Media, MP3, WMV, MID, Ogg, AVI, MOV, WAV, QT, ASF, MPEG, SWF, AU, M3U, MP4, MPGA[citation needed]

Below is a short list of other notable pre-installed and configured multimedia applications on Elive:

XMMS, Mplayer, Oxine, Stream Tuner, ReSound,GtkPod, GIMP, Blender

Elive developers ask for a payment to download the live CD or you can apply for invitation codes. You may download the development version for free and without effort, but the site labels this as "More than unstable, we can call it not usable, we are switching to debian testing and there is a lot of testing needed before it will be usable on a daily basis".

[edit] History and development process

The second to last release (0.6) lets the user choose between Enlightenment 0.16 (stable) or 0.17 (development release). Thus, it is a good way for the user to have a look at the latest version of this uncommon graphical environment.

Preceding the 0.5 release, Elive was built on the Morphix distribution, but the new one uses the Dsslive framework.

[edit] Releases

  • 0.1: The initial Beta release with the name Elive, which was Tezcatlipotix prior to the name Elive. This was based on Knoppix as well, but considered unstable yet working
  • 0.2: Several bugs fixed after reports and user experiences, yet ELive was still considered a development and working version
  • 0.3: The first stable version and the base was switched from Knoppix to Morphix
  • 0.4: Code named 'Serenity'; here Elive switched from Morphix to DSS(Debian Script Set)
  • 0.4.2: The second release of 'Serenity', with major revisions and ATI driver revisions
  • 0.5: Heralded release of Elive Revolution
  • 0.6: Second release of Elive Revolution named Revolution+
  • 1.0: Release of The Luxurious Elive Gem
  • 2.0: Unreleased but to include:
    • Switch to Debian testing
    • Switch from DSS to a script set designed by Elive's developer!

[edit] System requirements

The "minimum hardware requirements" for running Elive are:

  • 100 MHz CPU
  • 64 MB of RAM
  • At least 2,5 GB of disk space (for full installation and swap space)
  • VGA graphics card capable of 640x480 resolution
  • CD-ROM drive

The "minimum recommended hardware requirements" are:

  • 300 MHz
  • 128 Mb of RAM
  • At least 2,5 GB of disk space (for full installation and swap space)
  • VGA graphics card capable of 640x480 resolution
  • CD-ROM drive

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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